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Bears coach Ben Johnson learned the "Good, better, best" chant in high school, but it started long before that. Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Greg Fiume / Getty Images
How Ben Johnson made ‘Good, better, best’ a motto for the Chicago Bears
Kevin Fishbain
Nov. 20, 2025
For 12 years, acclaimed country singer Chase Rice and his band have done the same chant 45 minutes before their set. It’s something he learned from his high school football team, A.C. Reynolds, in Asheville, N.C.
Good, better, best
Never let it rest
Till your good gets better
And your better gets best
“It’s a core memory for me,” Rice said. “That was our mindset, man, and it was fun.”
Before Rice’s show in Chicago this past June, the band did the chant. Rice noticed one guest on the tour bus, his former teammate Ben Johnson, smiling.
Three months later, after the Bears’ first win of the season over the Dallas Cowboys, video from the locker room showed Johnson leading his team in the mantra.
“As soon as I saw it come on the TV, I was just dying laughing,” Rice said. “Like, damn, Ben. Hell yeah, I was excited.”
That wasn’t Johnson’s first time on Rice’s tour bus. It wasn’t the first time he heard the band do “Good, better, best.” But in that moment, did he know he’d be bringing the motto the two learned together more than 20 years ago to the NFL?
“Oh, yeah,” Johnson told The Athletic. “Absolutely.”
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